Strike warning for those in London hostels

Where would you be without trusty Sam Buckley, hey? Here I come to save the day! If you're staying in a hostel in London now, or will be in the near future, I suggest you do some thinking regarding your daily activities as transport strikes are looking scarily imminent - and some are already underway. You could find yourself stranded in the middle of one of the biggest cities around, with no way of getting home. Or you might miss out on seeing a West End play that you've booked and paid for, which would be fairly disastrous. (I went to see An Inspector Calls fairly recently, by the way, and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to feature a theatre trip on their London agenda.)

But back to the strikes. Apparently, members of union Unite have just started two days of walkouts, which began at 03:00 this morning (Friday), action that will involve some 2,500 people. And on Monday, a further 750 workers that are employed by London Underground will get the results back of their strike ballot, so the situation could easily worsen next week.

Regional secretary of Unite Steve Hart has said that the tube network, Transport for London and bus operators, as well as the mayor, "need to wake up" as "serious negotiations" are required.

He warned those high up in the industry that "Unite does not bluff and bluster - we negotiate hard, but are ready to strike if there is no alternative".

On to slightly brighter news - if you're staying in a London hostel, then you may be pleased to hear that the city's accommodation has been ranked first in a study by Deloitte looking into European hotel occupancy rates, which, to my mind, suggests that they're all lovely places to spend a night or two.